Wreck-It Ralph: The Tree of Memories (Work In Progress)
by HanaImakura
Summary: This is pretty much what could have or may have happened if and when Ralph was still just a child, all the way up to when his stump is finally uprooted and moved to the dump by the Nicelanders.


The Tree of Memories

READ BEFORE CONTINUING!

You might already know that this is a _Wreck-It Ralph_ fan-fiction. I am writing this brief

introduction to inform the reader that this fan-fiction may impede on some individual ideas

already being formulated about Ralph's actual backstory. This is my take on the story that could

have possibly taken place before the Nicelanders moved in and for now, it will be very brief.

Later, I may add more parts to it. However, I am not going to make this one of the romance fan-

fictions, since this is mainly dealing with Ralph's attachment to his stump. I will also be breaking

this into small chunks called "Memories", since they will be about Ralph's life that may have

taken place around that tree.

Memory 1:

The Patch of Fireflies

A young boy with dark-red, short, messy hair, bushy eyebrows and dark eyes set close to

one another above a huge, slightly reddish nose was sitting and waiting eagerly on a bench

during a game of football in his helmet, shoulder pads and bright white uniform with the number

7 on his back, located just above his name, R. Ralph. He stood up with hopeful excitement as

one of the players on his team was taken out, thinking, "Alright! Maybe I can finally get a

chance to play!" and a wide grin spread across his face like wildfire. The season before this had

been extremely uneventful for him, although his team was great at playing. The coach usually

asked him to fetch the ball if it went out of bounds or past a goal, or he was usually asked to

retrieve towels and water. It never seemed they were too eager to allow him to join in, but this

just might be his chance to show them that he could play just as well as anyone else.

The coach stood up to take a look at the remaining available players who were not either

injured in some way or taking a breather. It seemed the only one to choose was Ralph. Ralph,

the Team Trouble-Maker. As Ralph peered up at him with a hopeful look in his eyes, the

coach's expression softened up a bit and he said, "Rekkit, you had better do us proud out there.".

At this, Ralph jumped with joy and took off out into the field , yelling back to his coach, "Yes!

You won't regret this, sir!". Now, the game was on.

Ralph stood crouched directly in front of the kid who had the ball, determined to be the

first to snatch it from him. The other boy looked extremely tough, with grass stains all over his

uniform and a small bruise directly under one of his pit-like eyes. Before the whistle was blown,

the kid made an arrogant smile and said, "So… Your name's Rekkit, huh? You think you can

take one for the team, buddy?". Ralph's eyebrows came down in focus and his smile twisted

slightly before replying with "Wanna bet, grass-butt?". Challenge accepted. Ralph was not

going to show any mercy.

The whistle blew and everything flew by in a blur. Ralph kicked off as hard and as

quickly as he could to gain force, as well as momentum. It seemed as if he was almost breezing

past all of the opposing players as he began to single out the kid who caught the ball and was

running with it towards the field goal, when, in reality, his force was knocking them aside and

putting a few into a brief shock. He even bounced off of a few of them, gaining him even more

force due to speed. Within a few seconds, Ralph was upon the unfortunate target, raging toward

him at top speed. The impact was not going to be pretty.

Ralph realized what he was doing just a bit too late. He tried to dig his shoes into the

grass to slow himself down before he really could injure the other boy, but it failed. Ralph

collided headlong into the other player, who, may I add, was much shorter and smaller in stature

than Ralph. A split second before the collision, both boys looked each other straight in the eyes

with an expression in which they were both united- fear. Something must have clicked in

Ralph's mind, because in this instant, he forgot to take the ball and both boys fell hard to the

ground with a loud thud, disturbing a cloud of dirt and dust as well as a few clumps of grass. A

moment later, Ralph recovered and took a good look at the other kid as the coach came running

up to see if there were any injuries. This kid was scrawny, weak-looking, had a nose similar to

Ralph's own, had light, brown hair under his helmet (the helmet had come off slightly during

the impact) and he was carrying a golden hammer in his belt, which, oddly enough, he wore

over his uniform. Uh-oh.

The coach was half-way to where they were and Ralph panicked. He knew that the kid he

had just knocked out was Felix Junior, the most popular kid in the town, which meant that he

was about to get into some serious trouble. _Aw, man… What to do? What do do?!_ Ralph chewed

his nails, so to speak, as he quickly glanced at the coach, back at Felix, back at the coach, back

at Felix. Just before the coach arrived, Felix faded out and reappeared, refreshed and ready to

play again, with a huge, friendly smile plastered on his face, as usual. "Well, that was quite'uh

force ya showed there, m'friend! Congratulations!" Felix grinned and extended a friendly hand

for Ralph to shake. Ralph was absolutely dumbfounded.

Ralph opened his mouth to say, "Look, Felix… I'm really sor-" when the coach

interrupted with a loud, booming voice, yelling out," What were you trying to do, Rekkit?! Kill

Felix?! I mean, look! I know he's not on our team, but you know you can lose points in this

game if you injure another player! What were you thinking?!" and he grabbed Ralph's arm with

fingers of steel, causing a great deal of pain to rocket up through Ralph's nerves. Ralph's eyes

watered up with tears as he made an attempt to pull away, answering "I was only trying to score

for the team, coach! I tried to slow down! I really did! Look, I didn't mean to hurt him!".

"And what did you mean to accomplish by sacrificing our points, hmm?" the coach

snarled slightly at Ralph and pulled him in closer, appearing as if he was about to beat up Ralph

to show him how it felt, no matter if Ralph already knew or not. Ralph covered his face and

clenched his teeth in fear as a few tears rolled down his cheeks. "Umm… Sir? May I just add

that I don't think Ralph was tryin' ta kill me? I mean, it might soun' absurd, but that look in 'is

eyes before we crashed…" Felix meekly attempted to speak up to defend Ralph to stop whatever

violence was about to take place. "Felix, you should just stay out of this, alright? This is

between me n' my boy!" the coach interrupted, frightening Felix back into silence and forcing

him to leave. Felix slowly sulked off, stopping only once to glance back to see poor Ralph

getting smacked around a bit and trying to yell over his dad's voice, attempting to talk sense into

him before taking off running out past the field goal and into the night. Then, he could not help

but notice that the crowd had gone dead quiet.

Ralph kept running, blinded by his own tears and misguided by a broken heart. He bolted

through the town park, over the fence, past the forest, over the dump and then a blinding light

caught his attention. He wiped his eyes on his forearm and as he peered out into the night, he

could see a small orb of golden light dancing on the wind a short distance from himself. Ralph

was still quite upset on the inside, but he suddenly felt extremely curious about this tiny little

creature and decided to try to catch it to see what it was.

He followed it for some time and it seemed as if all of his worries and fears had simply

washed away, carried off by the winds, much like the little ball of light. A small, but pure smile

found it's way back onto his face as he happily chased after the insect, cupping his already huge

hands together in an attempt to capture it. This little game continued for an amount of time

unknown to Ralph, who had found bliss in playing with this small creature and before he knew

it, the little flyer landed against a flat, upward surface and flitted it's wings as it cleaned it's tiny

face. It's little greenish light flickered once or twice before it realized that Ralph's hands were

about to lock it in a huge, dark abyss and not even a second before his hands closed around it,

the little guy took off into the night.

As darkness yet again descended in the wake of the tiny creature, Ralph began to

remember why and from who and what he ran away from. He quickly twirled on one foot and

fell into a slump up against the surface from which the insect took off. Too distraught to take

notice of where he was, he again buried his face in his hands, pulled in his knees and thought to

himself, _Why am I always the bad guy? Why is it that every time I have an accident, it's a crime_

_and every time someone else has an accident, it's a friendly get-together?_. As he began to sob

again, another bright light illuminated his entire body and he then looked straight up into the

sky.

There, among the summer leaves, were a thousand fireflies, some clinging in huge groups

to single leaves, some standing alone and many rushing through the aerial speedways created by

the branches to illuminate the entire tree and everything under it's greenery. One extremely

small firefly descended and made it's landing right on Ralph's nose, causing him to look cross-

eyed at it. It looked him straight back in the eyes and tilted it's head slightly, as if out of concern.

Ralph smiled for a split second before looking away and closing his eyes with an expression of

deep sadness on his face. He waved his hand in front of his face to shoo the firefly away and it

took off into the leaves of the tree, only to return with a group of four others, each of a different

body size and shade of light, all of which were not among friends up in the top of the tree, and

they each landed on Ralph's shoulder. Ralph then opened his eyes to see them sitting there and

said, "Come on, guys. You don't want me as a friend. I might accidentally destroy you." in a

low, slightly grumbly voice. The fireflies made no audible reply and refused to budge.

Ralph peered up again at the colony of fireflies up in the branches and it occurred to him that maybe

these ones were outcasts just like him. He took one last look at them, yawned and smiled as he

reclined against the firefly-tree and drifted off to sleep.

End of Memory 1

Memory 2:

Through The Rabbit Hole and Back Again

It was afternoon and school was close to ending for the day. Ralph was on his way to the final class

in the day- an art course that was required for all students. He was about ten years old, now and could

take on several kids at once without so much as a scratch, although fights were his least favorite thing to do.

When he reached the class room, he took a look around at all of the art work, made a depressed face,

dropped his backpack down by his stool, took a seat and sighed. This was always the long hour. It

was not the fact that he did not like this kind of thing at all, just that this was the hour in which he was

most liable to have an accident, whether it involved paper, paints, scissors or clay. Something was bound to happen and he

never enjoyed that feeling of uneasiness.

Class began when the teacher finally gathered herself together at her desk and rose to take roll. When his name was called,

as he answered, he noticed a girl about his age, with huge eyes and pitch black long hair, with a cute little nose looking straight at him

and trying to stifle a giggle. "What's so funny, huh?" Ralph was perplexed, because unless she was laughing at his name, he could not see

what was so hilarious. The little girl's face flushed and she seemed to be attempting to find the right words, making the moment extremely awkward.

Before she could speak up, a little boy spoke up from across the room, saying "I think she's laughing at your name, Wreck-It!" as he and a few other

children burst into laughter. The teacher made an attempt to quiet everyone down, but this was doing no good for Ralph. He clenched his fists and his teeth

and appeared as though he was trying to hold himself back. It seemed that something like this happened to him just about every single day and he was

fed up with it all.

Before long, the children all around the room, aside from the quiet little girl, were all chiming in, calling him "Wreck-It" and taunting him,

singing something about Ralph being clumsy and wrecking things. Ralph could stand it no longer and without thinking, he did something

horrible. He quickly made a bee-line for the boy who started the teasing, shoving everything out of his way. One of these things was a metal

easel with a wooden clipboard sitting on it's ledge. Both of these items clattered loudly to the floor, taking the girl with them. Ralph halted

where he was, frozen in place, thinking _What have I done?_ as soon as the girl's cry broke the cacophony of voices. When he looked back

over his shoulder, eyes wide open, he saw the girl covered somewhat by the items he had shoved on top of her, crying as she held her

left knee close to her chest, trying to stop the stream of blood that was now heavily flowing from a cut. Great.

This girl had an excessive bleeding disorder.

The teacher and several other students rushed in to help her up and feeling really sorry, Ralph tried to squeeze into the crowd and apologize to her

first thing. She had stopped crying and seemed to gaze intently at the cloth which the teacher was using to stop her bleeding- she did not seem at

all upset with Ralph. When Ralph finally made it through, the girl finally looked up and she looked only at him. He sighed and pushed back his hair with one of

his gigantic hands and said, "Look, I'm really sorry I did that to you... I really am. I need to control myself when I get upset, I guess..." as he looked back at her

from underneath his bushy eyebrows. The girl made a weak smile, since she already lost a lot of blood and answered, "It's okay, Ralph. I'm not mad at you. If

anything, I'm more upset with those goons who were making fun of you.". After this, the girl passed out and the teacher rushed to her desk to get on the

phone and dial 911. Ralph felt absolutely terrible and it was even worse that it seemed there was nothing he could do.

But then, he remembered that the girl was not lost forever. For a moment there, he began to think he would never see her again.

What made him remember this was that as he was still looking at her face, there was a flicker of electrical blue light, a buzzing noise

and for a split second, a small data rift appeared on one of her cheeks. That's right. They were in a video game and unless you lost a life

outside of your game, you were not gone forever. However, Ralph had had no idea that this girl was not from Niceland at all and worry

instantly took hold of him again when her body began to fizzle out of existence.

"Oh, no! No, no, no, no! You ca- Ya can't delete your code on us! Please!" Ralph shoved his way in closer and made a feeble attempt to grab her before she

ultimately disappeared. Silence ensued as her code disappeared and Ralph was left alone, in the middle of the crowd. Slowly, whispers began to circulate

between the other children, saying how Ralph was now a murderer and it really upset him. As this was going on, Felix was making his way on an errand to the

office and he nearly passed the open doorway to the art classroom. When he saw what was going on, he set his things down outside the room and walked in

just as the teacher left to discuss the matter with the rest of the staff. "Hey, fellas. What's goin' on? Are you all messin' with Ralph again?" Felix could not

sound angry if his coding depended on it. Ralph was just about to rise to his feet and knock some sense into the other children, but he had made a promise

to that girl and reminded himself to try his hardest to keep it. "So what if we're messin' with Wreck-It, huh?! What's it to you, Felix? You aren't even friends with

him, are you?" came the reply in a low, growling voice.

Felix finally at least managed to make an angry face and as he advanced toward the group, he said "Man, you have some nerve! Ralph and I may not

exactly be friends, but no one's gettin' used as a punchin' bag on my watch!". By this, Felix pretty much meant that no one would be picked on or singled

out either emotionally or physically while he was around. He was always such a nice kid. No wonder why everyone liked him. But why was he at Ralph's school?

Either way, Ralph had had enough for the day. He simply shoved aside a few of the other students and made his way to the door after gathering his things.

Felix turned to follow Ralph and said," Ralph, are you alright? They didn't hurt you, did they?". Ralph remained silent and kept walking. When they left the

classroom, Felix had gathered his stuff and was walking right beside Ralph. At this angle, Ralph could see some official-looking papers sticking out from

Felix's backpack. After a minute of silence, Ralph finally spoke up and asked, "Hey, Felix. What 're those papers for? I mean, not that it's any of my business...".

"Oh, these?" Felix pointed to the papers, "They're my transfer papers. My dad decided to move me to your school after he heard that the kids here were

learnin' more." he smiled a bit.

"Oh... Cool. Oh and about what happened back there... Why did you come in and defend me like that?" Ralph scratched his head and made a confused face.

"Well, I figure if I was 'n trouble, you'd probably do the same thing, right? It's just do unta' others what you'd want done ta you, ya know?" Felix gave Ralph a

I-hope-you-would-do-that-for-me look. Ralph thought for a second before saying, "Well, I suppose I would..." and pressed one of his fingers on his chin a bit in

thought. They were now at the double doors that led out to the schoolyard and Felix stopped before turning to enter the office. "Well, I gotta go hand in these

here papers. I'll see ya later, Ralph." Felix tipped his hat and smiled "Hey, don't worry. If we stick together, maybe those kids'll stop makin' fun o' ya." before

disappearing into the office. Ralph sighed, shouldered his backpack and headed out, thinking _Why would Felix want to be MY friend?_.

Ralph slowly made his way down streets until he reached the edge of town before he stopped again to think.

_I'm not going home again, either._ he thought to himself as he looked back into town. He then resumed on his tired feet and kept walking until he had passed the

junkyard. In the distance, he could see the only piece of heaven in this whole world, the tree, but it was shrouded in dreary gray shades

as the sky began to fill with dark clouds. _Oh, great. Rain._ thought Ralph as he looked up into the sky. It thundered and flashed, causing him to start

running for the protection of the tree.

As soon as he was squeezed up under the limbs, rain began falling from the sky and he heard a few frightened noises coming from a hole in the tree beside

him. He leaned over to peek inside and found two small rabbits huddled together, looking out into the rain with fright on their faces. Ralph then looked up at a

branch just large enough to cover a small area around him and reached up to snap it off and bring it down to surround himself with it. Then, he carefully

reached a hand into the rabbits' hole and as gently as he could, he said "Come on, guys. You'll probably feel better if we wait this out together.". At first, the

rabbits sniffed his hand and drew back in hesitation. When he left it there for a few minutes, they began to realize that he was not going to hurt them and both

climbed up onto the palm of his hand and allowed him to take them out. Ralph then set them down in his lap and put his arms around them, holding them close,

but not too close, so that they would not become cold. The rabbits both slowly stopped shivering in fear and cuddled up in the corners formed by his elbows.

Ralph finally began to release his stress and he eventually fell asleep with the two little balls of white fluff in his arms.

End of Memory 2

Memory 3:

Ralph and Felix Enjoy A Blustery Day


End file.
